1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector for a plastic optical fiber cable (POF).
2. Description of the Related Art
The amount of information which can be transmitted through a POF is considerably small in comparison with a silica glass fiber, and hence, a POF has been used in very limited fields. Therefore, a large connection loss (transmission loss) has not been considered serious. However, there has recently been a need for POF connectors to be used for a wide transmission band in place of silica glass fibers. In this connection, conventional POF connectors have many problems to be solved. For instance, if a POF is pressed and deformed, the transmission band is narrowed. Nevertheless, this problem is not taken into account in the conventional POF connectors. Moreover, in the conventional POFs, the fiber diameter at the center portion varies in the range of 0.94 to 1.06 mm.phi.. Consequently, the connection loss or transmission loss depends on how accurately the POF is aligned with the center axis of a ferrule. Furthermore, in the case that a number of POF connectors are interconnected on a substrate, the ease of insertion or removal of the POF connectors should be taken into account. Nevertheless, since conventional POF connectors are used solely, no operation efficiency for connection and disconnection between the POF connectors is considered.